Anheuser-Busch InBev Has A Taste For Craft Beer, Gobbles Up Blue Point Brewing Co.

Craft brewers around the country are probably pouring one out in honor of their fallen comrades at Blue Point Brewing Co. Not because the brewery is out of business — nay, the opposite: It’s been slorped up by beer behemoths Anheuser-Busch Inbev.

Apparently your hipster cousin Colby (the one with the questionable knuckle tattoos, obviously) isn’t the only one with a taste for craft brews: AB InBev announced its newest acquisition today, reports the Los Angeles Times, without saying how much it paid for the company.

AB InBev seems intent on stretching its sprawling hold on the beer industry: Last year the maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois gathered up Grupo Modelo in its beery embrace after a long courting period for the merge that finally won the Department of Justice’s approval.

Blue Point started brewing craft beers in 1999 in Patchogue, N.Y. and has done well on the East Coast especially, with its popular Toasted Lager brand. The brewery sold 60,000 barrels last year, half which were Toasted Lager, the company says.

“Together, our talented brewing team and Anheuser-Busch will have the resources to create new and exciting beers and share our portfolio with even more beer lovers,” Mark Burford, one of Blue Point’s co-founders, said in a statement.

I asked a friend who’s quite the beer aficionado if this is some portent of doom, and he seems pretty relaxed about it.

“This is not a harbinger of the craft beer apocalypse; there are plenty of independent breweries creating incredible beers and more opening every day,” he says. “So if you’re adamant about only giving your money to independent craft breweries you can do that. If you don’t care who owns the brewery because you really like the beer then that’s fine, too.”

When reached for comment, your hipster cousin Colby simply sniffed and turned his head slightly as if he’d just smelled something distasteful. Then he slowly set down his Toasted Lager and left the room to play pinball at some new bar you’ve never heard about.

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It’s absolutely true that craft breweries are opening all the time, and a lot of them make some amazing beers. There are now a number of them here in the Nutmeg State and a friend and I have been going to tours/tastings. A couple of them are truly remarkable. I can honestly say there is nothing they make that I don’t love.

Perhaps Blue Point is being swallowed up and will be lost to the world of craft brewing, but your beer aficionado friend is absolutely right: Dozens more true craft breweries will replace it, so ultimately there won’t be any loss. There will only be gain.

It’s a remarkably different world from what was available back in the early 80s when I was in college and first imbibing brewskies. Back then, any beer aficionados I knew would argue the merits of Candian beer vs. American, for example, with Canadian beer lovers arguing Labatt vs. Molson. I can’t imagine having such a conversation today.

This is just like what Miller did with Leinenkugel years back. They are finally realizing that they should be scared of craft breweries. Ones here in the Texas area where I live do produce beers that nothing the majors produce could ever touch. 6 years ago, there was only 1 brewery in this area. Now, there are 10.

I don’t quite get all the references to my “hipster cousin”, as though those are the only people who drink craft beers. The very success of craft beers shows that they are more and more mainstream. And I, who am far from hipsterdom and close to Social Security, only buy craft beers, and mostly ones from my state, which has an amazing and growing selection to choose from. InBev sucked one brewery up? There are plenty more. And maybe that brewery will continue to make good beer despite being sucked up.